European Distance Learning Week: Open Education at the micro level: “Use of MOOCs in Traditional Classroom: Blended learning Approach”

Antonia Bralić, Blaženka Divjak

Faculty of Organization and Informatics,

University of Zagreb

Use of MOOCs in traditional classroom:

blended learning approach

This work has been fully supported by the Croatian Science

Foundation under the project IP-2014-09-7854

Agenda

• Massive Open Online Courses – MOOCs - Blaženka

• Case study overview – Blaženka

• Literature review – Antonia

• Case study results – Antonia

• Discussion and conclusion – Antonia & Blaženka



Massive Open Online Courses - MOOCs

• Prior learning

• Supplementing traditional learning courses



Massive Open Online Courses -

MOOCs

Benefits of incorporating MOOCs in traditionally taught course

• replaying lectures

• augmenting or replacing secondary materials

• filling gaps in expertise

• exposing students to other styles of teaching and class discussion

• reinforcing key skills, and teaching students how to teach online

Blended learning enhancing teaching and learning processes

Downside of MOOCsThis work has been fully supported by the Croatian Science


Case study

overview



Course learning

outcomes related to

MOOCs

Teaching

and

learning

method

Assessment

method

Student

workload

- ECTS

credits

LO1: Solve real

world problems in

ICT with methods

from graph theory

and discrete maths

individually and in

collaboration

LO2: Use

mathematical

literature from

multiple sources, at

least one tool for

processing

mathematical

language, and an e-

learning system,

having specific

characteristic of

mathematics in mind

Students

work in

teams of

three on

posing and

solving

authentic

problems

Alternative:

students

participate

in selected

MOOCs

Teacher

assessment

and peer

assessment of

problem solving

based on

prepared

criteria and

scoring rubrics

Alternative:

assessment of

MOOC

performance

(90% of a final

grade); diary

analysis and

presentation of

MOOC to other

students (10%)

LO1: 40

hours =

1.5 ECTS

(approx.

20% of

the course

7 ECTS)

LO2: 20 h

Discrete Mathematics with

Graph Theory (DMGT) is

taught in the first year of

master level of study

programs Information

Systems and Software

Engineering at University of

Zagreb, FOI

Full time and part time

students

100 + students each year

Syllabus:

• Discrete mathematics

• Graph theory and its

applications

Case study overview

Why MOOCs?

• To expose students to more online learning experience

• To help part-time students in meeting the course’s learning

outcomes

How?

• Coursera course (different in 2014/2015 and 2015/2016)

• Moodle Journal



Case study overview – learning diary



1. Which MOOC did you choose and what success did you achieve? Certificate/points

upload

2. What did you learn? Please refer to learning outcomes of the course DMGT.

3. Elaborate your weekly activities in MOOC by explaining what you learned. Have

you encountered this content earlier in your studies at FOI?

4. How are content and methods covered in MOOC related to DMGT course?

5. Elaborate your weekly activities in MOOC by explaining what you learned. Have

you encountered this content earlier in your studies at FOI? (only in 2015/2016)

6. How would you describe your experience with using MOOCs?

7. Estimate the time required to successfully complete the MOOC (personal opinion,

not what is listed on MOOC site)

8. What changes could we introduce to DGMT course based on your experience with

the MOOC you took?

Research questions



RQ1: Can use of MOOCs help in giving students positive learning

experience in virtual environment and help part-time students in achieving

particular learning outcomes?

RQ2: How to align course learning outcomes and student workload with use

of MOOCs in a specific course?

RQ3: What are the main challenges for students in using MOOCs?

NOW ANTONIA

Literature review



Author Research

Griffiths, R., Mulhern, C., Spies, R., &

Chingos, M. (2015).

Examining the use of MOOCs in fourteen

campus-based courses. No statistical

difference in pass rates, better feedback on

traditionally taught courses

Ghadiri, Qayoumi, Junn, Hsu, &

Sujitparapitaya (2013) in Yousef,

Chatti, Schroeder, & Wosnitza (2015)

edX course at San José State University.

Included projects and quizzes. 90% of the

students passing the final exam (55%)

Israel, M. J. (2015). Review of models of incorporating MOOCs;

„modest positive impact on learning

outcomes, no significant evidence of

negative effects for any subgroups of

students, and lower levels of student

satisfaction”

Bruff, Fisher, McEwen, & Smith (2013) Vanderbilt University, Coursera’s Machine

Learning. Additional learning and tasks,

focus groups and qualitative analysis. No

participation in forums. Higher satisfaction

score in 2012 (2006)

Case study results



2014/2015

107 students enrolled

28 female

79 male students

9 chose MOOC

2015/2016

88 students enrolled

13 female

75 male

22 chose MOOC

Name of metric 2014/2015 2015/2016

Percentage of students that chose MOOC over project work 8,26% 25%

Average final grade of students who completed a MOOC 37,94% 52,93%

Average final grade of students who completed project work 45,53% 50,48%

Average evaluation of MOOC related tasks (by teacher) 85% 71,67%

Case study results



Connection between MOOC and DMTG course (questions 1-5)

Relate to learning outcomes

(1) “I would link the Coursera course to a specific learning outcome of DMGT...”

(2) “I would connect MOOC learning outcomes with three DMGT learning

outcomes”.

Theory in practice

(1) “DMGT and MOOC are complementing each other very well. In DMGT I

received theoretical grounds and MOOC helped be to understand the theory

following practical examples”.

Language

(1) “I was skeptical because of the language barrier (…)

(2) “I liked this way of learning because, in addition to learning itself, I had a

chance to practice my English skills and to think about this topic in English”

(3) “I spent most of the time translating tasks to Croatian to understand what

needs to be done”.

Case study results



Experience with using MOOCs (question 6)

(1) As I was going through the course I selected, I have also browsed through

the platform and detected several other courses I plan to take at a certain

point”

(2) “The entire experience (…) is very positive. This is the first time I have

studied something this way, but it is definitely not the last one”.

Difference in option of choosing MOOCs

(3) “A significant advantage was that we (students) were not limited by a

certain topic, but only by an area that needs to be covered in a MOOC”

(4) “ It would be good to have a specific course as a task, rather than being

given the option to choose any course that fits DMGT. Coursera library is

very extensive so it took some time to find the appropriate course”

Case study results



Experience with using MOOCs (question 6)

Self paced learning appreciated

(1) “I was able to plan my time dedicated to learning. The only element to

have in mind was the quizzes deadline, where I had three attempts

without time limit, which was more than fair”

(2) “Being time-flexible was one of the most important elements of MOOCs”

(3) “Advantage of MOOCs is the possibility to access content anytime, when I

was focused and motivated, and interested in that content. Thanks to this,

I was able to master the content in a more efficient way – simple and fast”.

Knowledge evaluation

(4) “More frequent knowledge evaluation is far more effective than having two

exams per semester”

Case study results



Time required to successfully complete the MOOC (question 7)

40-50 hours to completion, to fit approximately 30% of complete DMGT course

ECTS load

most students have shared that the time it took them to complete the MOOC

corresponds to what is stated on MOOC homepage

the required time can prolong significantly depending on prior knowledge of

the subject and consequently speed of completing follow up tasks, as well as

on efforts put into studying follow up literature

(1) “In the beginning I was fast with solving problems (…) because I have

encountered this content before (1h-2h/week). Later, it took me longer to

solve tasks and I needed to go through materials again (4h-5h/week)”

(2) “It took the same amount of hours as stated on Coursera site to complete

the MOOC, but to rewind the videos and to fully understand the content, it

took twice as much time as suggested”

Case study results



English language

(1) “Some tasks were easy while some required significant effort to master

mathematical cryptography terminology in English”

(2) “If a student understands English well, it is possible to follow lectures at a

higher playback speed”.

Challenging tasks

(1) “Tasks that trigger intensive thinking are the reason why I’m glad I chose

MOOC”

(2) “It would be hard to follow MOOC content without basic subject knowledge

gained in classroom.”.

***

“5 hours per week is the optimal amount of time to dedicate to this type of

learning, as it’s likely that individuals spend the same amount of time on

activities that are not at all connected to university related tasks”.

Discussion and conclusion



Can use of MOOCs help in giving students positive learning experience in

virtual environment and help part-time students in achieving particular learning

outcomes?

• MOOCs have supported learning in virtual environments

• New and positive experience

• Recognition of the value of forums, discussions, and partnering with others

– team work/activity

• Self paced learning valued

• Knowledge assessment




How to align course learning outcomes and student workload with use of

MOOCs in a specific course?

• Fine tuning with learning outcomes, assessment methods and students

workload

• Students’ prior knowledge and possible language barriers to be taken into

consideration

• Intended learning outcomes were not always recognized by students as

covered by MOOC exercise• pedagogical foundation of the course and the concept of learning outcomes

• easier to map concrete content than abstract competences such as problem

solving.




What are the main challenges for students in using MOOCs?

• Language

• Importance of previous knowledge (mathematics and programming)

• More frequent knowledge and skills assessment

• Self-motivation and completing tasks in time




• Model is learning outcomes based

• MOOC implementation successful alternative to project work

• Positive feedback and high level of satisfaction



Thank you!